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Episode 1399: The Longest Leader
Date July 3, 2019 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley reflect on the passing of Tyler Skaggs. Then (9:57) Ben and Sam Miller banter about whether it’s better for a team to be in a division with a few good teams or a division with one great team and a few bad teams and answer listener emails about whether baseball is a strong-link sport or a weak-link sport, whether a team could benefit by tailoring its park and its roster to a homer-averse style of play, which teams they think it would have been better for baseball for Mike Trout to have been drafted by, plus Stat Blasts about Charlie Blackmon’s home/road splits and the return of vintage Coors Field, and Trout’s chances of setting the record for the longest-ever reign by an active WAR leader. Topics * Baseball as a strong or weak link sport * Building a new ballpark for today's offensive environment * Players significantly impacted by a change in ballpark * Picking a team to draft Mike Trout * Mike Trout's hypothetical stats in different parks * Charlie Blackmon and extreme home/road splits * Coors Field offensive environment * Active career WAR leaderboard * Knuckleball development Intro Built to Spill, "So" Outro Paul McCartney, "4th of July" Banter * Ben and Meg reflect on the recent passing of Tyler Skaggs, and how it is difficult to know the personal stories and impact of players. * Reaction of players and media to Skaggs' passing * Player relationships across teams * Sam continues to listen in reverse order to episodes featuring Jeff as a co-host, highlighting comments about Oliver Drake in Episode 1326 and the idea division competitiveness from Episode 1324. Email Questions * Nat: "In Zach Kram's recap of Monday's US Women's soccer match, he wrote: "soccer is a weak-link sport, meaning that a team is typically only as good as its weakest link (as opposed to a sport like basketball, where a team is generally as good as its strongest link)." Do you think baseball is a strong-link sport or a weak-link sport? I think Mike Trout's Angels prove it's not a strong-link sport. But also, the Red Sox just won a World Series with Eduardo Nunez and Sandy Leon (sorry guys, love you). So maybe it's a median-link sport? Where the team is as good as its median player?" * Josh (Dubuque, Iowa): “For some period of time now, there has been an increasing emphasis at the team level in producing home runs. This is consistent through all levels of most organizations to include player development (encouraging and developing home run friendly launch angles), roster construction in paying and procuring such players, and even at the franchise level when one team or another is constantly moving fences in to encourage more home runs. I feel that we are at a breaking point. Wouldn't it behoove a team to zig where everyone else has zagged? Build or remodel a home park to have a massive outfield. 450+ feet in center, close to 400 feet down the lines. Large enough to take away a majority of current home runs and turn them into either base hits or outs. Construct a team of line-drive hitters, which theoretically should be cheaper. Sign an outfield full of the fastest players and best defenders you can get, which again should be relatively inexpensive and hold far greater value to you than other teams (Kevin Kiermaier, etc.). Am I crazy, or is this the kind of drastically different team identity that fans could really get behind?” * Henry: "Apropos of the Keith Law oral history/Trout-aversary: what team would you choose to have drafted him if you could go back and change time and your goal is to maximize fun/general coolness? Maybe this is unfair but it feels like the Angels have been below-average in this regard; we all know they’ve “wasted” his insane talent re: playoff success but I also feel like they’ve wasted his talent re: entertainment value. I think my choice is the Blue Jays, because the Blue Jays being fantastic would be really cool, Trout could’ve played with Bautista and Encarnacion, and because “Mike Trout, Canadian hero” just feels right." * Eric: "I was just browsing the career WAR leaderboard, and noticed that Mike Trout is about to pass Miguel Cabrera for second among active players. Once Pujols retires, it seems possible (likely?) that Trout will be tops among active players until ''he ''retires. That would hopefully be a long reign, so I'm wondering: what's the longest time any player has sat atop the active career war leaderboard? I don't know if this is even possible to look up, but it could be yet another record for Trout to topple." * Chris (via Twitter): Let's talk knuckleballs. To this day I refuse to believe a smart team couldn't manufacture knuckleballers." Stat Blast * Sam is struck by Charlie Blackmon's extreme home/road splits this season. Blackmon has a 187 tOPS at Coors Field. * Blackmon hits the ball 5 MPH faster at Coors Field and is also chasing fewer pitches outside of the strike zone. * The Coors Field offensive environment has gotten more and more extreme, returning to a similar outlier status it had prior to the installation of a humidor. Notes * Ben and Sam agree that baseball is more of a 'median link' sport. With the exception of pitchers in the short term, you cannot dramatically increase the usage of your best players. * Sam thinks that he would not be currently writing for ESPN if Mike Trout had not been drafted by the Angels. By living in California, Sam could access Trout and wrote two ESPN cover stories on him. * The Rockies pitching staff this year has a home ERA that is second worst in MLB history. * There have been 33 active WAR leaders since 1871. Willie Mays, Cy Young, and Walter Johnson each held the active lead for ten years. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1399: The Longest Leader * Remembering Tyler Skaggs by Fabian Ardaya * Giancarlo Stanton's Instagram post * Angels players remember Tyler Skaggs * Even for homer-happy 2019, offensive is out of control at Coors Field by Sam Miller * Active WAR leaders by year * Mike Trout tracker, June edition by Sam Miller Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes